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Dom Robinson reviews
Special EditionDistributed by
- Cert:
- Cat.no: 9052169
- Running time: 115 minutes
- Year: 2002
- Pressing: 2002
- Region(s): 2, 4 (UK PAL)
- Chapters: 20 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 EX,
DTS 5.1 ES (Eng only) - Languages: English, Dutch
- Subtitles: English for the hard of hearing, Dutch
- Widescreen: 1.85:1
- 16:9-enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: 2 * DVD 9
- Price: £22.99
- Extras: Introduction by Steven Spielberg, John WilliamsLive at the Shrine Auditorium 2002 Premiere, Evolution and Creation of E.T.,The Reunion, The Music of John Williams, The 20th Anniversary Premiere,Space Exploration, Designs Photographs and Marketing, Trailers
Director:
- Steven Spielberg
(1941, A.I.: Artificial Intelligence, Always, Amistad, Catch Me If You Can, Close Encounter of the Third Kind, The Color Purple, Duel, Empire of the Sun, E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial, Hook, The Indiana Jones Trilogy,Jaws, Jurassic Park 1 & 2, Minority Report, Poltergeist (uncredited), Saving Private Ryan, Schindler’s List)
Buy from 
Producers:
- Kathleen Kennedy and Steven Spielberg
Screenplay:
- Melissa Mathison
Original Score :
- John Williams
Cast :
- Elliott: Henry Thomas
Gertie: Drew Barrymore
Michael: Robert MacNaughton
Mary: Dee Wallace
Keys: Peter Coyote
Tyler: C.Thomas Howell
Pretty girl: Erika Eleniak
E.T. voice: Pat Welsh
E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial: quitedefinitely one of the most well-known films ever made and still a classiceven twenty years on. It also brought the attention of seven-year-old DrewBarrymore to the fore, who’s easily gone on to have the biggest careerof the whole cast, presuming you don’t count Harrison Ford who shotscenes as the School Principal, which were later cut out of the final version.
I saw it, aged 9, on New Year’s Day 1983. All was quiet on new year’s day,except for some people blubbing in the audience as E.T. was forced to returnto his homeland after the snooty government stepped in after a young boynamed Elliott found him hiding in his summer house and allowed him to seekrefuge in the family home.
Soon after E.T. originally lands, the family are sceptical about the door tothe summer house being left open, the footprints in the dust leading Michaelto conclude “The coyote’s back again, Mum”, but Elliott has other ideasand after going outside with a torch and hearing grunting in the bushes like ademented Sidney Cooke, he strikes upon a more pleasant revelation and consultsthe family over dinner while they discuss their Halloween plans.
What follows is a really fantastic film as Elliott happens across aonce-in-a-lifetime friend and they begin to learn a great deal about eachother and where they each come from.
This 20th Anniversary Special Edition has some welcome additions such astwo new scenes, including one where E.T. takes a bath, plus improved specialFX, most noticeable in E.T.’s spaceship and his facial expressions. Alas,in an attempt to be politically-correct, Spielberg has stupidly replacedall the guns with walkie-talkies. Bad idea.
Unless I’m mistaken, Spielberg has also removed the line about looking like a”terrorist” when in Halloween fancy dress.
The DVD set reviewed here was released on October 28th 2002 and six weeksfollowing that is the release of a 3-disc version which also contains theoriginal 1982 version with an RRP of £27.99. Since the Region 1 DVDcontains the 1982 version as standard – and not at the expense of many extras- I think that’s how the Region 2 version should’ve come out.
Note: E.T. carries a U-certificate, but the extra,Evolution and Creation of E.T., which has a PG-cert, means the entireboxset carries the higher certificate.
Hey, they got the 1982 version, but we didn’t!
Presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen, the picture is flawless to theseeyes, but then you’d expect it to be so, given that the extensive restorationthat Spielberg has undertaken in this project.
Both major home sound formats are catered for, of which I plumped for thesuperlatve DTS 5.1 ES option. Dialogue is clear as a bell, spot-effects arewell-realised and when the DTS sound kicks in early on as E.T.’s spaceshiptakes off, it will rock your room more than a Manchester earthquake.
I do think that if the Dutch DD5.1 soundtrack had been dropped and some ofdisc 2’s extras moved across to the other one, then the regular version of thefilm would’ve fitted on disc 2… or, put them both on disc 1 and useseamless-branching to flit between the two.
Mmm… hug.
Of the extras on the first disc, you don’t get to choose from a list which isbizarre. It runs straight into the 2-minute Introduction by Steven Spielbergin 16:9 letterbox, after which comes the John Williams Live at the ShrineAuditorium 2002 Premiere, which is just an alternate soundtrack to the film,not that you’d be able to tell the difference.
And on to disc 2…
These begin with Evolution and Creation of E.T. (50 mins), another featurettein 16;9 letterbox (come on, it can’t be hard to dig out the anamorphic versionof these, given that so much work has gone into the film itself), whichblends chat from the cast and crew with film clips and also includes thescreen test for Henry Thomas you might have seen on TV at the timeof the updated film’s cinema release. There’s also a look at the enhancedE.T.
Ah, The Reunion… (18 mins, 4:3) everyone gets together and discusseshow they feel 20 years on. The Music of John Williams (10 mins, 4:3)shows footage from the film score’s original recording as well as recent chatfrom Williams. As for The 20th Anniversary Premiere (18 mins, 4:3)…Hang on, the box said that this live piece was on disc one… Oh, it’s the”making-of” that event and, as such, isn’t particularly interesting.
Designs Photographs and Marketing shows off the designs of E.T, thespaceship, production photographs and how the film was marketed. Erm… thefinger-light (right) looks like a massive dildo!
Space Exploration shows off the solar system, with E.T. explainingbasic facts about each planet. Alas, the voice sounds more like StephenHawking with his voice-computer batteries having gone flat. This is followedby three Trailers, one for E.T. itself (2 mins, 16:9 letterbox), one forthe Ubisoft game (1½ mins) (anyone remember the fantastic Atari VCS game??)and the Back To The Future DVD trilogy (4:3, 1½ mins), due to hit the shops inDecember 2002, at the time of typing.
Ok, some reasonable extras there, but a far cry from what you’d expect fora Special Edition. No audio commentaries and just the bare bones of the usual,all or most of which would’ve fitted on disc one had it dumped the Dutchsoundtrack and alternative music track from Williams, and all of which areextras that you’ll watch once and rarely return to.
Subtitles for the film come in both English and Dutch, with various otherlanguages for some of the extras, there are 20 chapters to the filmand the menus feature music from the film.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.